ewgn-vol19-issue4-FINAL

27
WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JANUARY 2015
Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2015: AGW/WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events
Train the Trainers: Cape Town, South Africa,
August-September, 2014
Tauseef Ali, MD, FACP, FACG
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Oklahoma
Oklahoma, USA
When I received my acceptance letter
to attend the 2014 Train the Train-ers
Workshop in Cape Town, South
Africa, I had no idea what I was
stumbling into. Without a doubt,
this was the most exciting, pleasant,
and educational experience of my
professional life. I would like to thank
WGO and the American College of
Gastroenterology (ACG) for facilitat-ing
the workshop and providing me
the opportunity to attend this exciting
event. This unique and one of a kind
workshop left an ever lasting impres-sion
on me. I have tried to summarize
my experience in the next few para-graphs,
but I am pretty sure words
cannot do any justice to describe this
fabulous experience.
I am a faculty member at the
University of Oklahoma, USA and a
practicing physician at Saint Anthony
Hospital, Oklahoma where I also serve
as the director of the Crohn’s and Coli-tis
Program. I am involved in teaching
medical students, residents and gastro-enterology
fellows. I was nominated by
my parent organization, the ACG, to
attend this workshop.
After our arrival at the beautiful
city of Cape Town, we were housed in
a very beautiful hotel, surrounded by
breathtaking vineyards in the suburbs
of Durbanville. The workshop started
with a dinner reception where all the
attendees from about 50 different
countries and faculty members of the
workshop got the chance to introduce
themselves and some of us began
journeys of everlasting friendships.
The four-day workshop was divided
into different modules and break-out
sessions. In the adult education
module on the first day we learned
Touring Table Mountain and Robben Island during Sunset.
Venue: Protea Hotel-Durbanville.
that adult learning is most successful
when the learner is actively involved.
Another very important take home
message was that adult learning is
more effective when the relationship
fosters mutual respect and is encour-aging
and supportive. Other topics,
such as setting up learning objec-tives
and conducting effective group
discussions, were also part of this
educational module. There was also a
hands-on procedural teaching mod-ule
where we were taught effective
methods of teaching gastroenterology
procedures to trainees and provid-ing
feedback to their performance.
The next day modules consisted of
evidence-based medicine, critical ap-praisal,
publications, and a breakout
session on preparing an abstract for
presentation. The third day consisted
of modules like presentations and
trial designs. Modules on the last day
were assessment and appraisal and
credentialing. All these modules and
break-out sessions were great learning
experiences. The break out sessions
and team work gave a unique oppor-tunity
to learn about different health
care systems from around the world